How to use Clear Touch RL500 camera

[drepouille]

Our new A/V system was installed about three months ago in July 2025. This included a new PTZ camera, I think the RL500. Back in July I asked the electrician who installed everything how I could connect my laptop to the camera for our Zoom meeting. He gave vague answers, implying that the FM would set it all up for me, as well as changing the admin password for the camera.

Yesterday, the engineer who designed the A/V system came in to tune the speakers and train our ward leaders. He showed me the HDMI port in the cabinet in the library, and said I needed an HDMI to USB adapter to connect my laptop. I asked about configuring the IP address of the camera, and he told me that the FM doesn't get involved in that process, and all that is done by the STS.

So after waiting three months for someone to configure the PTZ camera and train me how to use it, I have nothing -- except for the excellent help and instructions provided on this Forum.

Thanks, guys! I just wish Ward Tech Specialists had access to CNM.

[CalS201]

This discussion thread (posts #19 & #20) has links to get a PDF of the manual.
viewtopic.php?p=242866#p242866

The manual contains the info you need to access the camera video streams via a network connection. See pages 10-11, sections 6.4.2 & 6.5.3

To summarize, you can look at the LCD on front of camera to view the camera IP address. This IPaddress is then used by a program like VLC or OBS to view the video stream on a remote computer. OBS has a "virtual camera" output that ZOOM can use.

For example
"rtsp://IPAddress:554/1" (First stream)
"rtsp://IPAddress:554/2" (Second stream)

If you connect a stereo line-level audio signal to the camera's LINE INPUT jack, then the stream will also contain the audio for the meeting.
This wireless audio system will plug into the chapel "record Out" jack and transmit audio to the camera.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D8HW9TR1

Once you have audio to the camera, it can be setup to stream directly to youtube (without a remote computer) by just turning on camera power for each sacrament meeting with a timer and POE Injector.

[drepouille]

I followed the excellent instructions in the PDF created by brad_p to configure the IP address of the camera. Since I don't have access to CNM, I asked the GSD to assign a static 192.168.108.xxx IP address to the MAC address of the camera. So now I can access the camera via Liahona. I can view a full-screen video stream from the camera in a tab on my browser, which I can share to my Zoom meeting.

However, I don't know if the chapel audio is connected to Line Input on the camera. So I am not sure if I can stream both audio and video from the camera to my Zoom meeting. I have had a few conversations with my STS, and we are trying to set up a time when we can meet at my chapel.

I have never used VLC or OBS, and I don't know where to download them. Until I can get that set up, I can use the PTZ camera video and the audio from Record Out on the podium via a very long TRS cable to my laptop for the Zoom meeting. I hope that does not create a sync issue between audio and video.

We have no intentions of using YouTube to stream Sacrament Meeting. But we may choose to change from a Zoom meeting to a Zoom webinar.

[drepouille]

This is a good YouTube video by Ken Taylor on how he uses OBS with Zoom for Sacrament Meeting. It does not address PTZ cameras, since he uses a portable webcam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dd5zelVW8Q

[drepouille]

This is another very helpful video on how to setup OBS with your PTZ camera. The RL500 uses the same internal software as the Honey Optics PTZ camera in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyrAj-hh5Qc

He talks about using the NDI OBS plug-in and the PTZ OBS plug-in to control the camera within OBS.

[drepouille]

I am wondering if any stake or ward technology specialist is using YouTube to stream stake and ward meetings. It seems to me like a privacy nightmare. First, a YouTube account must be created and managed. Then livestreams must be scheduled. And then there is the problem of controlling who is able to watch the stream.

While anyone in the public is welcome to attend our meetings, many members and leaders who speak do not want their talks to be broadcast to the public at large. I know that using YouTube and Facebook is a simple way for people to connect to the stream, but we prefer to use the church-provided Zoom account to monitor and control who is watching the stream. And we typically do not record any stream for later viewing.

So far, I like the ease and power of using OBS to control the PTZ camera and special effects. And I like the ability to use OBS as a virtual camera source for our Zoom meetings. I just hope that the engineer and contractor have connected chapel audio to the Line Input of the PTZ camera. Otherwise, I will be sitting in the meetinghouse library during every Sacrament Meeting to manage and monitor the stream.

[drepouille]

OBS has a "virtual camera" output that ZOOM can use.

For example
"rtsp://IPAddress:554/1" (First stream)
"rtsp://IPAddress:554/2" (Second stream)

These videos say that RTMP is for things like YouTube, while RTSP is for local encoding and streaming (such as for Zoom). It also states that "/1" is the HD video stream while "/2" is the SD video stream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffijtsWL6A8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8No9bSheCo

[drepouille]

My change from using a Logitech webcam to the RL500 PTZ camera may be more simple than I thought. With the webcam, I have been using Logi Capture to manage the webcam. With the PTZ camera, I just need to replace Logi Capture with OBS using the NDI and PTZ plug-ins. Then I just need to set the Audio and Video sources for the Zoom meeting to use the OBS virtual camera.

I believe it is the Zoom app that actually performs the encoding, bitrate control, and so on.

Thanks, everyone for the help.

[drepouille]

I may have misunderstood what the OBS virtual camera does. Apparently, it provides video only. I have to setup some sort of virtual audio source as well. One video I watched suggests using Voicemeeter Banana as a virtual audio device. So this may not be quite as simple as I had thought.

[lajackson]

I am wondering if any stake or ward technology specialist is using YouTube to stream stake and ward meetings.

I know quite a few who still do. We had to use YouTube during COVID because the 500 users allowed by Zoom is not enough for the 1800 connections we had for our stake conference.

Today, most of our wards use Zoom with simple setups. But at our stake center, the wards use the rear ceiling mounted camera and the stake equipment, which culminates in output from an encoder. (We do stake conference the same way.) Since Zoom will not accept output from an encoder, we feed YouTube. If Zoom accepted encoder output, we would change in a heartbeat.

I am the stake STS (one of my four callings) and I do not live near the stake center. I have trained the ward STSs there to turn on the encoder at the beginning of the day and turn it off after the last meeting. The more ambitious ones will also use the camera remote control to view more than just the pulpit. They also know how to turn off the rack video and audio feeding the encoder so that the sacrament ordinance is not webcast.

I do have to set up the YouTube event each week. I also turn off the event at the end of the day. I have set the YouTube stream to go Unlisted when the stream ends, and when I set up the webcast I turn off the DVR setting. You watch it live or not at all.

I use my smarter then I am phone each week to check in the morning that the webcast is working, to end the stream after the last meeting, to set the stream for the following week, to delete the webcast, and then to email the bishop and clerk of each ward the number of connections they had to the webcast that day.

I thought making the event unlisted would keep anyone from watching it again, but I discovered that if someone saves the link on the way to the webcast, they are able to access the video again even after it has ended and is unlisted. So I have added to my checklist a step to delete the video as soon as I turn off the stream. I was deleting them anyway. I am just more efficient about it now.

I regularly watch sacrament meetings where my children or grandchildren speak. Most of them attend stake centers where they seem to be doing things the same way I do them at ours.